Kaipara Hunting and Fishing Camp - Success!!!!!!!!

This past week I volunteered on a high-school aged camp up at South Head. Being a gun license holder, I was one of the hunting guides taking the boys out onto one of two farms in the area that held deer. Bit of blind leading the blind but ah well haha, its not too difficult hunting on those farms.

The camp was intended to be split into two camps that ran back to back, one for the juniors and one for the seniors; but not enough boys signed up for the juniors, so they merged the two camps into the first half of the week. Good news for me, the leaders/helpers were invited to stay the rest of the week as the camp was still booked for the second half of the week.

During the first half of the week, I didn't manage to get any kids onto their first deer, but at least they got to see some deer. We saw many hinds and most with their fawn in sight. The farmer had ruled them off limits, so no shots were fired. Even though it would have been so cool to see one of the boys on my hunts get their first deer, it was good for them to learn to practice honesty and restraint to ensure the health of the herd. There were 4 other hunting guides who took the boys out and they managed to score 5 spikers on the trip (if I remember correctly), so that was wicked! Here's a photo of the deer that was shot on the first night

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The hunts were in the morning and night. During the day the boys went fishing, shot clay birds, shot .22 at targets and a few other things. I tell you what, my patience with some of the more disobedient boys was wearing ever thin after burning the candle at both ends, hunting in the morning and night haha. Especially around the guns - can't be safe enough.

All in all, the first half of the week was cool, but the second half of the week was when the real fun began. With the boys gone, us leaders were not shy to enjoy the freedom of a couple beers haha On the Thursday night after they left, me and another leader went for a hunt but only saw hinds! Bloody hinds everywhere! So in our frustration mixed with boredom, we decided we'd sneak up on this hind and fawn to see how close we could get. We spread out and I flushed them out towards my mate. Boom! This hind came crashing out of the long grass away from me and directly towards my mate, once it saw him it quickly changed direction and leaped passed him about 3m away, pretty cool stuff to see. We kept looking for the fawn but we couldn't find her.

The next day we decided to sleep in and head out at night. Me and another guy were camped out at dusk on this hill that over-looks a stretch of fence-line that they come out of. I kept hearing crashing in the bushes and watching where it was coming from and then I looked down and thought "Fuck, that's a deer, when did you get there!?" It was about 200m away and my scope is pretty cheap and nasty so I was struggling a bit to see if it had spikes, so I looked through my mates scope that had a better magnification and was of better quality. I saw spikes! Fuck I've been waiting to see damn spikes all week. And just then as I went to put down my mates rifle to pick up my own the damn thing became aware of us and boosted it off under the fence and into the bush. Fuck!!! So close I could taste it!! I can't express how gutted I was, but at the same time, I was still stoked because it was the closest I'd gotten all week. That's hunting for you though right? haha

Next morning I rose nice and early ready to settle the score with any deer of the buck/spiker variety. The pressure was on, with the weather set to pack in for sunday, I had at best this morning hunt and the evening hunting that night to get me a fallow spiker. We set out walking the line of pines just after 5 and we feared we might have been too late when we caught the tail end of a few escaping through the fence as we looked over this little brow in the fence line. But we carried on and just over the next brow was a spiker!!!! My time had come. It was about 40m away and facing brisket towards us. I lifted my rifle up to my shoulder and dropped the bolt, lined the cross hairs on the base of the neck and let it roar! He went down like a sack of shit! I was so stoked! I keep reliving that image over and over in my head, seeing the cross hairs on the base of the neck and pullling the trigger. Best feeling I have felt since I don't know when! The 7mm08 did the business on its neck easy at that distance and I manged to only slightly harm one of the forequarters as the bullet exited the neck it scraped the left forequarter. So here's a couple photos for your viewing pleasure

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Glad to have popped the cherry!

One of the more experienced leaders was with us and he taught me how to gut the thing and I back packed it out of there. Let it hang for awhile another one of the hunters helped me butcher it. Its the family Christmas gathering tonight so needless to say, there will be venison on the BBQ and I won't be shy to tell the story of its demise! haha

Little bit of a long post but cheer for reading

Well done Phillipgr. Good that you got some lessons as well

Cool post, well done mate:thumbsup:(but not the veni;))

AWESOME STUFF Phillip
so glad you finally your first deer. you have certainly put in the hard work. enjoy that eye fillet. its a good feeling helping the other guys to try and get their first deer weather successful or not aye buddy. if you do next years camp let me know i would be keen to help if your short of leaders

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Originally Posted by Rushy

Well done Phillipgr. Good that you got some lessons as well

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he's a top bloke Rushy had the pleasure of taking him up the back of the farm for a hunt, had no luck that night, but was very impressed with his safety and ethics.

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Originally Posted by mucko

he's a top bloke Rushy had the pleasure of taking him up the back of the farm for a hunt, had no luck that night, but was very impressed with his safety and ethics.

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Yet to meet the Young man Mucko but he did PM me for some tips before going and was very respectful about it. If you do come up next year I would be happy to host you either side. Could also pitch in and help if needed.

Thats a good little post mate thanks

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Originally Posted by Rushy

Yet to meet the Young man Mucko but he did PM me for some tips before going and was very respectful about it. If you do come up next year I would be happy to host you either side. Could also pitch in and help if needed.

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i will be heading your way at some stage in spring next year to pick up my dog from Jim Broadbent. so i will at the very least pop in for a cuppa

Good stuff! :cool:

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Originally Posted by mucko

i will be heading your way at some stage in spring next year to pick up my dog from Jim Broadbent. so i will at the very least pop in for a cuppa

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I look forward to it but hope to meet you well before then.

Big thanks to mucko, Rushy and everyone else on this forum for the help you've all given me. Its been great having that advice and teaching and I think that deer would have taken me a lot longer to get if it weren't for all the help. Thanks again, I'm stoked.

I think I will do the camp next year too and I'll give you a buzz if they're short on helpers, cheers guys.

Venison tasted pretty damn good tonight at the party. The rest of the family seemed to like it too. I think I may not have hung it long enough though, as it could have been a little bit more tender. It was a really hot day, I shot it at 5.30am and butchered it at 1.30pm, is that a bit short for a deer that size on a hot day? I tried to make sure I didn't over cook it, but I think some pieces I could have taken off the BBQ a little earlier - maybe that was it. But still very tasty. Look forward to making a nice casserole and I think I might try my hand at making some jerky too. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Well done but not the venison ;-)
Hot quick cooking for steak take it off before you think its ready as it tends to keep cooking a bit.
Longer is better to hang if you can if not leave it in the fridge for a few days before freezing

Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2

Haha I kept thinking that when I was cooking it. I think the hot plate wasn't hot enough and I think I did notice that pieces seemed to cook after they had been taken off the plate. Still got some back steak from the other animals that were shot on the camp so I'll heat the pan up hotter and take them off earlier with those ones.

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Originally Posted by phillipgr

Big thanks to mucko, Rushy and everyone else on this forum for the help you've all given me. Its been great having that advice and teaching and I think that deer would have taken me a lot longer to get if it weren't for all the help. Thanks again, I'm stoked.

I think I will do the camp next year too and I'll give you a buzz if they're short on helpers, cheers guys.

Venison tasted pretty damn good tonight at the party. The rest of the family seemed to like it too. I think I may not have hung it long enough though, as it could have been a little bit more tender. It was a really hot day, I shot it at 5.30am and butchered it at 1.30pm, is that a bit short for a deer that size on a hot day? I tried to make sure I didn't over cook it, but I think some pieces I could have taken off the BBQ a little earlier - maybe that was it. But still very tasty. Look forward to making a nice casserole and I think I might try my hand at making some jerky too. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

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Phillipgr last night I just had the first of the Fallow that I shot a 9 days back. It had spent all that time in the chill of an old fridge. The back steaks were "melt in your mouth" tender. The secret to cooking venison is to never take it past medium rare and as VC says know that it does continue to cook some as you rest it after cooking. You can get a good judgement of how cooked a piece of steak is by pressing your finger into it and comparing it to the muscle that is on the palm of your hand just under your thumb. Holding your thumb to your first finger = rare, thumb to middle finger = medium rare, thumb to third finger = medium and thumb to little finger = well done.

You will shoot many more deer and learn how to cook it like a pro

Okay, yeah next time I think I need to let the meat age a bit longer. Find some place away from the flies. That little trick with the muscle below your thumb is good, I'll remember that. It will save me from cutting the pieces open all the time, like what I was doing last night haha

Haha cheers Toby

Why is it that I don't often see venison in supermarkets anymore? I mean, venison sausages were all that I was able to get from a supermarket beforehand but even they have disappeared. Admittedly I could be looking against my eyelids but I've been scouring for them but gave up ages ago.

Same reason you dont see cray fish,blue fin tuna etc etc. Its all exported, Kiwis cant afford to eat kiwi produce. Barstard globalisation

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Originally Posted by Ryan

Why is it that I don't often see venison in supermarkets anymore? I mean, venison sausages were all that I was able to get from a supermarket beforehand but even they have disappeared. Admittedly I could be looking against my eyelids but I've been scouring for them but gave up ages ago.

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Couple of reasons. The first is that most commercial venison / cervina is destined for foreign markets or the restaurant trade. The second is the expense and that the lack of intramuscular fat makes it very easy to fuck up that expensive piece of meat so people are reluctant to buy and therefore supermarkets are reluctant to stock.

Had a look the other day in the supermarket and venison "medallions", presumably back steak sliced up (?), were fetching fifty something a kilo. That's a lot of money!